Flight Log - Lake Bohinj

Second flight of the day from the takeoff above the lake to the south, but I didn't find the lift I was looking for in order to cross over to the north shore and try to thermal along the cliffs.

I could see Tim above me doing quite nicely near the ridge, but it looked like I was in for a simple glide down. I still fancied there ought to be something above the hotel on the bump by the town, and .... suddenly I found myself in a real big elevator being lifted from 800m to 1550m! Hooray - now I had enough height to cross the lake. Arriving at the north wall around 1000m, just below the eastern takeoff, I tried to find lift around the gullies as Brett had advised me to do. It was quite good just on the corner, but I wasn't really getting high enough, so tried going a bit closer.
Mark had always told us not to fly towards the hill, but now this was exactly what I had to do to find the lift. I could see the leaves on the birch scrub fluttering in the hot upcurrents and the trick was to get close to them, but not so close that I couldn't turn away if the thermal stopped.
Suddenly my radio, which had been quiet for ages, crackled into life. It was Brett, ensconced in a bar at the end of the lake, who had just picked me up in his binoculars. He soon had me turning to left and right, moving along the wall as I did so towards the western end of the lake. As I did so, I gathered more and more height until by the time I was at the corner that he couldn't see around, I was actually well above the cliffs altogether, with the odd eagle circling below me! Now it was time to glide back east.
I thought I had better record this for posterity so, as the air seemed quite smooth, dared to pass the controls into one hand and get my camera out. Then I had to get pointing the right way, so my toes were in the photo and Fuji Finepix did the rest. The next leg of the mini Cross-country flight was to go to the takeoff on "Strudel" to the east of the lake, and then turn and fly south west to the landing field. I failed to take any more thermals on the way to Strudel and ended up too low by far. Not finding any other source of lift I had no option but to try for the field, but fell short by about 1/4 mile, landing in a nicely mowed hayfield. Packing the glider up I caught a couple of dozen grasshoppers, but I didn't care - I was so delighted with the flight, by far the longest and most successful one I have done so far.

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